Anna Kristensen, Bodega, 2021, oil and acrylic on linen, 61.00 x 81.25 x 2.50 cm, TCG22421
(photo: Yanni Kronenberg)

A filthy sidewalk in front of a Brooklyn corner store is illuminated by a squiggle of sunlight. Unlike the geologic surfaces in Badlands, this man-made conglomerate rock, speckled with gum-stains and plastic matter, catches the light from our closest star as it bounced one last time from the bodega’s façade. Without the benefit of a crisp navigation pole to orient us, the confused light is almost gestural, its wavy lines echoed by a nearby mop string. Bodega brings the properties of light and reflection seen in Kristensen’s glass works to bear with her rigorous study of surface in the Yurt paintings and Lattice. Harkening back to Skew, her earlier work of a floor soaked in colored stained-glass light, this rough concrete sidewalk is lifted from underfoot and placed at eye level upon the gallery’s smooth, naturally-lit concrete wall.

- notes on artwork by Rob Smith in conversation with the artist